Not Like the Others
by Vickerooni
Summary: Sakura is in a tight pinch and it's up to Kakashi to get her back to the Konoha hospital before she dies. Emotions are felt, things are said, and tragedies are relived. How can Kakashi show Sakura how much he cares for her without saying too much? Rated T just to be safe!
1. Chapter 1

"Come on Sakura, stay with me."

Kakashi sprinted the ninja way through the forest, from tree branch to branch, holding an injured pink-haired kunoichi to his chest.

"Kakash…I can't…I can't…" Her eyes were clamped closed, brows crashing together in pain and breathing hard. She had been able to heal the wounds to stop the bleeding on the outside, but she hadn't had enough chakra to heal the internal bleeding of her lungs. There had been too many Rain ninja for her to handle them all on her own.

"Yes, you can. Open your eyes. Just a little bit longer, Sakura. We're almost to the hospital."

Her head lolled back and he moved his arms to support her neck. He could tell that she was fighting the wave of unconsciousness, but she was going to go under soon if he didn't hurry.

"Hold on just a little bit longer," he murmured, the tack of his ninja shoes increasing in rapid succession as they hit the branches.

"I ca- I can't, Kaka…shi…" Her breathing was coming out in shallower pants and he didn't have to be a medic to know that that was a bad sign.

"Please Sakura, just hold on. I can't lose you. Not like the others." His mind's eye flashed back to the tragedy over a year ago and he couldn't shake the images from his head.

_Sakura kneeled over one body, her hands working quickly, the green glow emanating from them as she scanned the black haired boy. Rain relentlessly poured over them and Sakura was glad that it was hiding her tears when she heard Kakashi land with a tack, arriving in front of her. _

"_Sasuke…don't do this…don't die…" she whimpered, biting her lip and willing herself not to let any more tears fall for the Uchiha boy. She cursed herself for not having the chakra needed to heal him enough to sustain him until they got back to the village. _

"_Sakura, where is Naruto?" Kakashi asked firmly. Her head dropped lower and the green orb around her hands weakened until it went out altogether, like the flame of a candle shushed by the wind._

"_Over th-there." _

_Kakashi quickly followed the direction of her finger and leaped over to the orange clad boy. "Naruto? Naruto, what happened?" Kakashi took in the fact that the yellow haired nin was covered in more red than orange as he kneeled beside him. _

_Naruto coughed up blood and a few drops spattered onto the revealed skin of Kakashi's face, but he didn't flinch away. "A-ambush. Too many…" Naruto's eye lids fluttered before he gave under the crushing weight he felt. _

_Kakashi hung his head as he stood, gazing down at the last Uzumaki. He saw a few spots where Sakura had stemmed the bleeding, but it hadn't been enough. It had been clear that she was too worn out of chakra to do anything more and Kakashi new that just that thought would kill her. _

"_Kakashi…" she began as he came closer. He still couldn't see her face, shrouded as it was by the curtain of her limp hair. "Did Naruto…?"_

_She hadn't needed to say another word; he understood, and nodded his head solemnly. Kakashi watched her muscles tense, her fists clenched and body trembling under the cold sheet of rain. "Sasuke…N-naruto…I couldn't save them…neither of them…" _

_She stood up and limped towards Kakashi, falling into him because of her shattered ankle. He caught her in his arms before she hit the ground and held her there for a few moments before picking her up and heading top speed back to the village. We'll have to send a few nins to retrieve the bodies, Kakashi thought. They both deserved proper burials._

"_Kakashi…you know the rule book says to never let your emotions show…" She sobbed hard and clutched at his vest in her feeble fingers. "I s-say screw the rule b-book."_

No, Kakashi couldn't let that happen again. He couldn't protect Obito or Rin, and then he had been too late to protect Naruto and Sasuke. Sakura was all he had left of them. Sakura was all he had left.

Kakashi wouldn't let that happen again.

His pace doubled, despite the pain throbbing from the bleeding wounds in his arm and leg. He would survive, but if she didn't, he wouldn't be able to live with himself. It would be worse than hell on earth.

"Sakura, we're almost there. Keep your eyes open, keep them open. Look at me."

He looked down to see her trying her hardest to open those emerald eyes. She managed to keep them half-lidded for a while before the effort was too much and they crashed down again. "I can't…I can't, Kaka…I can't…"

"Yes you can." He gritted his teeth, the Konoha symbol engraved in the gates in his sight. "Almost there."

"Kaka…Kaka…shi…I…I…"

He could feel her shaking in his arms, her grip on his shirt going slack. _No,_ he promised himself, and her. _I won't let this happen again._

She coughed and sputtered, gasping for air, and a few droplets of blood flew to his face.

_Just like Naruto._

_No! _

He sprinted between the gates and immediately took to the roofs, taking the quickest way he knew to the hospital. _I will not relive this. I will not make her relive this._

"Keep your eyes open, Sakura. We're almost there. I can see the hospital."

When there was no response, he looked down only to find her delicate lips parted and eyes completely closed, her muscles slack. "No…no, Sakura. Please, Kami, no…"

He burst through the hospital entrance and yelled for help. He nearly bowled over Tsunade in the process, but she didn't get angry once she saw what was in Kakashi's arms.

"Bring her in here, now," she ordered swiftly, leading him to a room just two doors down from the entrance. He laid her down quickly on the clean white sheets and Tsunade wasted no time in putting her hands to work, the strong green orb enveloping them.

"Shizune! Get two more medics in here, now!" Tsunade barked as the black haired woman hurried by.

"Hai!" she replied, sprinting down the hallway to retrieve more assistance.

"Kakashi, what happened?"

Kakashi leaned against the doorway, panting dryly with a hand clutching at his arm; it felt like it was on fire. "I-I don't know, Tsunade-sama. She had been on an escort mission to the Land of Tea-" He cringed, a bolt of pain lancing through his arm and leg. He couldn't stand up straight without hurting.

"Do you think she was attacked on her journey back?" she asked calmly and authoritatively.

He nodded, his vision beginning to blur. Gazing down at his wounds, he realized that he had lost a lot of blood, possibly too much.

"Just…please save her, Tsunade…sama…" he breathed out before collapsing to the floor.

"_Shizune!_ Where are my medics?" Kakashi heard before a blanket of black covered him.


	2. Chapter 2

Ungodly bright lights. A light pressure cupped in his hand.

He flexed his fingers and got a nearly immediate response with a strong squeeze. The rustle of the overly clean sheets met his ears and he slowly turned his head in its direction. When he opened his eyes it took a good minute for them to adjust; all he could see was blobs of color.

He didn't need to see clearly to know who was at his bedside, however. The blurry pink hair he saw was all he needed.

"Awake, Kakashi?" The syllables dropped delicately from her lips and he could instantly tell that she was sleepy.

"Mm," he grunted. He reached up his other hand to scrub his face and check for the mask. The headband was gone and most likely on the bedside table, as usual, but thankfully the blue fabric was still in place over the lower half of his face. Tsunade and Sakura knew better.

"How do you feel?" she murmured. Kakashi let his eyes slide closed.

"Do I look well enough to go home?" was his reply.

That elicited a few light giggles from the kunoichi resting her head on the mattress beside their clasped hands. Sakura didn't know why she had reached up and grabbed his rough palm in hers, but he didn't pull his away so she simply let it lie there. She sighed and let her eyes close, the threat of forced sleep hovering over her like a gloomy rain cloud.

"How long have I been out, Sakura?" He asked, keeping his mismatched eyes shut. Not for any particular reason, not even because the lights were blinding; for some reason he couldn't rationally think of, her voice was calming to hear, and instead of shoving away thoughts of that profile that concerned her, he let his mind revel in what it wanted. He didn't have the capacity to care at the moment and it wasn't like they were in a public place, so he let it go.

"Just a couple of days." Her voice was abnormally low when she replied and to Kakashi it sounded like she was halfway to comatose.

"How long have you been awake?"

He caught her hesitation at that query.

"Well…just a couple of days…" she mumbled.

"Sakura…"

"Don't, Kakashi. I am a grown woman and I can do what I want. I'll get some sleep soon anyway, now that you're awake."

He listened to her breathing continuously get slower and slower beside him until he thought she was out. She surprised him when she spoke.

"Yesterday was the day," she whispered so quietly that he almost wondered if she had wanted him to hear her.

"What day?" He rolled his head on the crisp pillow to gaze down at her. He sighed inwardly; he couldn't deny that she had become a beautiful, intelligent kunoichi.

"It's been a year, Kakashi."

A flood of memories smashed down the barriers in his mind and engulfed him entirely; Sakura pulled him out with the soft tugging of her voice.

"We both lost so much that day. I just wish I had been stronger."

"Sakura…" He squeezed her hand tight in his; it made her blink up at him with wide, shimmering emerald eyes. "We did lose a lot, but we've still got each other. If you had died a few days ago, I don't know what I would have done. Everyone I've ever loved I have lost because I couldn't protect them and I can't let that happen again. I won't let that happen again." His thoughts spilled over unfiltered, even through his mask. It sounded strange to him to sound so sentimental; he usually wasn't that transparent with anyone, not even himself.

"Y-you love me, Kakashi?" That questioning gaze couldn't escape his notice when he swore he saw flecks of hope skip through her eyes.

He paused before answering, opening his mouth before closing it and opening it again in uncertainty, his brain paper jamming. Is that the way he really felt about her, as a companion and not as much a comrade? Had he really fallen for this girl? This woman? Did he dare murmur that word that he always thought he would dread the day to say? He couldn't explain the foreign sensations and emotions prancing through his mind when he looked at her radiant face every day, nor could he make sense of his thoughts about her, day in and day out.

"Yes, Sakura. I…I love you."

There was a painfully long pause and Kakashi's heart began to sink. Perhaps he was wrong and she didn't feel the same. Perhaps he had said too much. But then Sakura started to say his name, softly at first, and as she continued to repeat it, her voice grew louder. Kakashi kept responding, but she didn't seem to hear him.


	3. Chapter 3

"Someone thank their lucky stars. Looks like he's coming around."

_That wasn't Sakura._ That voice was more strict and stubborn, more masculine in a sense.

"Shizune, fetch me more bandages. It's about time to finish healing up these wounds."

"Hai, Tsunade-sama."

"Kakashi? Wiggle your fingers if you can hear me."

He couldn't honestly tell where anything was, but he tried to do as she asked. Apparently he succeeded.

"Good. Kakashi, listen to me. You're alive and you're in Konoha's hospital. Do you recognize my voice?" Tsunade leaned closer as she spoke.

Kakashi forced his mouth open, but as he attempted to speak, it felt as if he had swallowed a handful of sawdust. He cleared his throat and began again.

"Where is Sakura?"

"Answer the question, Hatake. You know how this goes," Tsunade replied firmly.

"Tsunade…where is she?" Kakashi asked again, rasping out each word with effort.

"Just hold on, Hatake. Just a few more questions."

"No. Is she all right? Just tell me…how is she?"

Tsunade sighed then and Kakashi heard her heels click-clack around his bed to sit in the chair beside it. She scooted it closer so that he could hear her whisper if she chose to. Kakashi's stomach ate his heart as it fell. Of course this meant nothing good.

"She survived, Kakashi, and only because you got her here moments before she would be deemed unsaveable. If you had been any later, it's possible she wouldn't still be here," Tsunade murmured gently. Kakashi rarely heard this tone from her. It was usually always demoralizing at best.

"Where is she?"

"Critical care. Half the nurses in this hospital have already been there to pay their respects. You wouldn't believe how many surprised eyes followed me down the hallway when I was pushing her gurney to her room."

Tsunade sounded tired. But since when didn't she, Kakashi thought.

"She won't be able to walk for a week, but at least she's alive and breathing. Her lungs were in the worst shape, one deflated and full of blood and the other extremely overworked…" Tsunade trailed off and finished with a sigh before standing to her feet and placing a hand on Kakashi's shoulder. "You did a brave thing, Hatake, even though you were disobeying orders," Tsunade said with a slight smirk. "Perhaps I will be able to pardon you from further punishment."

And that's when she punched him in his injured arm. Kakashi winced, but didn't let out a pained sound.

Shizune came in minutes later with the rest of his bandages and Tsunade fixed him up. After she finished fully healing him, he was able to open his eyes and sit up in bed, although it took tremendous effort. His shoulder and arm were screaming at him, as were his legs, but thankfully it was only throbbing and not pain.

Kakashi later came to realize that when he told Sakura he loved her, it had all been a dream, a figment of his drugged up, unconscious imagination. Partially he was relieved, but the other half of him wished he had been able to express such a thing to her. He shook his head at the thought, though; there was no way she felt the same about him. Besides that, he'd never say anything anyway. He sighed.


	4. Chapter 4

A few days later, Tsunade finally gave in to his pleas (which were more weak demands than pleas, and they were only weak because of his state of being) to go home and dejected him from the hospital. Kakashi, thankful as the grass is when it rains, overcame the strange feeling in his legs and walked home.

Kakashi never thought he'd be so happy to see his front door. He fumbled for his keys, opened the door, and breathed in the smell of his apartment. It wasn't the most delicious of scents, but it suited him and he didn't care otherwise. Besides, he didn't spend that much time at home anyway.

The first thing he did was enter his bedroom, intent on changing into a clean set of his normal attire. He examined the current state of his clothes and sighed again, knowing the blood stains and rips would never be remedied. Another pair thrown away.

Easily, he stripped off his shirt and went to unbutton his pants when he heard a noise from his bed. It sounded a lot like someone clearing their throat.

Kakashi spun around, on red alert, although his legs didn't comply as quickly as he would've liked. As soon as he registered who it was, he stood straight and simply stared at her.

"S-sakura? What are you doing here? You're supposed to be in the hospital."

Sakura smiled shyly and stood from the bed before falling back onto it with wobbly legs. She dismissed it easily and began to speak. "I could say the same for you, Kakashi."

"How did you even get in here?"

A deep red blush saturated her cheeks and neck as she pointed to the front room. "You left your window open in your hurry to come save me."

Memories of the past week rushed through his mind. Sakura attempted to stand again and succeeded. Slowly, she took step by step toward him. He met her in the middle and let her sink into his arms in a tight embrace.

"I wanted to thank you for rescuing me. My parents also want you to know their gratitude as well," Sakura murmured into his bare chest. Kakashi immediately thought they had never been this close, except for when he was carrying her back to Konoha a few days prior. He found he thoroughly enjoyed it, but he'd never voice such things.

"There is no need to thank me, Sakura. I just couldn't leave you like that. It was my duty to rescue you."

"I know. I'm the only one left, so ideally you'd want to preserve that. I suppose I'm not very shocked at your disobeying orders just to come get me." Sakura sighed then and situated her hands differently. "I miss them. Naruto and Sasuke. Sometimes I wish I could have taken their place that day. But I'm glad I didn't lose you, too. I don't know what I would have done then."

Kakashi's heart did a funny sort of pleasant acrobatic move in his chest.

"What do you mean, Sakura?"

She shrugged under his arms and suddenly he realized how long they had been standing there like that. He didn't make to break the embrace, though.

"I don't know if I could have survived, having just lost two of my closest friends and my mentor."

"You would still have your parents. And Ino."

Sakura sighed again and Kakashi thought he could get used to that noise. And also the feel of her breath across his chest.

"Yes, but that's not the same. Naruto and Sasuke were like brothers. Ino is just…Ino."

Without filtering, Kakashi murmured, "And what am I like to you?"

"I, well, you're my mentor, of course. I don't know, maybe like an uncle, or something…" Sakura stammered, turning her head so that he couldn't see the blush filling up her supple cheeks. She wasn't successful in hiding it from Kakashi, though.

His mind and body apparently weren't listening to each other because they started acting of their own accord. Kakashi placed a couple fingers beneath Sakura's chin and tilted her head up so he could gaze into her impossibly green eyes. She blinked up at him, curious but uncertain.

"You are much more than that to me. You are precious to me, Sakura." _Am I really saying this? _"I know I couldn't live with myself if I lost you." _What the hell is all this? _"Especially if it was in my power to create the difference between you living or dying."

Sakura continued to blink up at Kakashi. Before too long, a worried look overtook her delicate features and she reached a hand up to feel his forehead. "Are you feeling all right, Kakashi?"

Gingerly, he grabbed her wrist and placed her hand over his quick-beating heart. "I'm fine, Sakura. I don't know what got into me. It must be from the hospital or something Tsunade gave me…"

Sakura's face fell subtly and Kakashi wasn't sure if he imagined it or not. He was tempted to pinch himself just to make sure this wasn't another one of his crazy dreams. "So you didn't mean anything you said?" Sakura asked quietly.

Kakashi hesitated, backed into a corner, unsure of how to respond. Yes, he did mean what he said, but not if she didn't feel the same way. Should he lie and protect himself or confess the truth and see how things fell?

Without truly thinking about it, one of his hands rested on the back of Sakura's neck and the other on the small of her back, pulling her flush with him. His head tipped and his lips touched hers. After a few agonizing seconds of no response, Kakashi nearly pulled back to begin apologizing for his erratic and strange behavior, but Sakura held him in place and kissed him back. A feeling of warmth swept through him as she replied to him without saying a word. He felt her endless smile beneath his lips and couldn't help but mirror it.

_I love you too, Kakashi._


End file.
